We say NO to #SOPA (our official stance)

Since the news broke today that one of our competitors wholeheartedly supports the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), many of you have asked us about our position on the matter.

Let us be clear: Namecheap is not in favor of SOPA as it has been proposed.

Why are we against the proposed SOPA legislation? It’s very simple; at Namecheap, we believe in internet freedom.

When you register a domain name, you can do anything you wish with it within the confines of the law. That is the essence of the Internet; the ability for anyone anywhere to make a meaningful contribution to the commons, and to have that contribution recognized. We’re proud to be a very small part of the wonderful things that our users have created online.

SOPA, as proposed, would give unprecedented remedies to owners of intellectual property. While protection of intellectual property is important, to allow overbroad and ill-considered remedies and processes such as those contained within SOPA threatens the very freedom that serves as the foundation of the Internet.

If SOPA passes in its current form, the rights of users (who are the Internet) will be wholly and totally subjugated to the rights of intellectual property holders. This simply cannot stand.

We applaud those who oppose SOPA and are proud to join their ranks.

Our CEO, Richard Kirkendall, has also made the following statement:

While we at Namecheap firmly believe in intellectual rights, SOPA is like detonating a nuclear bomb on the internet when only a surgical strike is necessary. This legislation has the potential to harm the way everyone uses the Internet and to undermine the system itself. At Namecheap, we believe having a free and open Internet is the only option that will continue the legacy of innovation and openess that stands for everything we all value in our modern society.

Thank you for your opinion and your self-adding to the list of companies that do NOT support SOPA.

Personally, I feel that SOPA is a bill that should never be passed. The day I saw the website that asked everybody to stop SOPA was the day I got a big shock when I knew what was happening.

Assuming that all websites get censored, people from all over the world would be suffering. Maybe people’ll say it’s a good break, but many of these people solely rely on PPP, PPC and GPT sites for their income. Yes, they could get a real job, but what if they weren’t old enough? If their parents disallowed? There are some many points that are unable to be all read out.

I am not an American citizen (in fact, my country’s high and far away from America), and yet I am against it myself. Why are there people hesitating? Honestly? It’s ironic how the Americans created the web and now wants to censor it.

Fight the good fight, Namecheap. The Internet is the best invention since the printing press, allowing anyone with a voice to speak to an audience in the thousands or millions just for the tiny costs of hosting. SOPA would destroy Internet commentary on virtually every topic, and passing that bill for the sake of reducing piracy would be almost as ridiculous as passing a bill to stop protecting free speech for the sake of reducing fraud. Of course, people will try to find workarounds even if it does get passed (there’s already a DeSopa Firefox add-on being made), but if this precedent gets set then there’s always the possibility that the entire infrastructure of the Internet will be changed (ruined).

Anyway, the “competitor” you mentioned was already a sad joke for many reasons, but I hope that their new support of SOPA really opens people’s eyes to rid themselves of bad company that doesn’t care about free speech and take their business to a respectable registrar like you. I’ll stick with you guys at Namecheap for as long as the government allows the Internet to keep existing, myself.

Currently a GoDaddy customer. I’ve been with them through thick and thin, but this is the final straw. I’m taking a “wait-and-hope-they-come-to-their-senses” approach, but they seem to be doubling down on their misguided and arrogant stance. I’m out before the new year.

I think we all believe in protecting IP and such, but this thing (SOPA) is not the answer.

One question for you Namecheap. It’s fine to put out offers and gain customers while everyone boycotts GoDaddy, but at the end of the day, if SOPA passes you have to comply with the law… no matter how much you disagree. So, what are you doing as a company to ensure that this doesn’t pass? Are you actively involved in the media, legislation, activists, etc. to ensure that SOPA doesn’t pass?

While Godaddy is wrong, they very active/vocal about promoting SOPA because they believe and support it. I hear you saying you’re against SOPA, but what are you doing to ensure it doesn’t become law?

I’m just not fully aware of all your efforts. So, along with your blog sharing your position on SOPA, can you also share what you’ve done to ensure it doesn’t become law?

WOW… GoDaddy just posted this update response. Seriously? Its like they are ASKING customers to leave!

Update (6:18 PM): GoDaddy seems unimpressed by the boycott so far. They made the following statement to Ars Technica: “Go Daddy has received some emails that appear to stem from the boycott prompt, but we have not seen any impact to our business. We understand there are many differing opinions on the SOPA regulations.”

This is precisely why I transferred my domains over to Namecheap from GoDaddy. Thanks to ArsTechnica for the heads up on GoDaddy’s support of the incredibly ill thought out SOPA. Thanks to Google for the ability to search for the best place to register domains.

HAHA, GOOD! It will hit them in about a few months when new domains stop getting registered there! Fuck you GoDaddy, you oppose freedom of the people! You would much rather give power to the ultra wealthy! If a revolution happens you better watch out.

Just to clarify, @Josh (one of the first posts), the ping command on any operating system won’t work as long as you’re using an American regulated DNS, however tools such as https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/ use off-shore and foreign (unaffected) DNS, so it will still be easy to bypass SOPA, which is why it will only hurt legitimate businesses and non-tech savvy users.

With all due respect …it was as just as much “news worthy” on Nov 15th as it is today.

Just because NameCheap and most ever other domain registrar have been totally disengaged on the subject for the last 3-8 months, shows a lack of understanding of “SOPA & Protect IP Acts”…or you and the rest of the major domain registrars would have been engaged in the debate a long time ago.

“SOPA & Protect IP Acts have been all over the news for onths…’Protect IP Act’ goes back to last spring.

Maybe now, after been deftly silent on both of these…the domain name Industry as a whole and Domain Registrars specifically will now ‘engage’ on this issues…when Congress comes back into session in mid-January

Just decided to make this transfer to namecheap. So far, it’s been a smooth process. I’ve never really liked my other registrars for any reason. Supporting SOPA was more than enough to leave them. I hope namecheap feels the same about ProtectIP.

We respect your feedback regarding our phrasing, and as we said, the information regarding our competition was brought to our attention yesterday. Certainly, it doesn’t make the November announcement any less newsworthy. Their announcement, however, was not our only reason for our statements. Regardless of timing, we as a company felt it was important to make a stand against SOPA. We intend to ensure our message is heard into 2012.

The internet is one of the last frontiers. We need to have people like you protecting it! I’m against #SOPA and proud of it! Thanks to Reddit and other social sites, many people like myself, have been able to transfer our own domains, and encourage huge websites to transfer over to you.

I’m sorry i know this has nothing to do with SOPA which i am against but i just wanted to point out that Great Britain (United Kingdom) created the internet not america, it was in fact a british scientist known as Tim Berners-Lee although i understand why you got confused because he does now live in America..

I am from the Philippines, but IP laws enacted in the United States have far-reaching effects and can have profound impact on the internet at large. Hence, I will begin the process of transferring my domain names to NameCheap despite the fact GoDaddy has withdrawn its support for SOPA.

I can’t believe so many people used godaddy anyway. I registered a domain with them several years ago THEN read their policies and saw that in actuality they own the domain and can lock you out of it or take it away from you or anything else they want to do when they want to. No wonder they support SOPA, they act just like our government. Thanks namecheap for being who and what you are and for standing WITH your customers.

While protection of intellectual property is important …
No, it’s not. Culture depends on the ability to freely use and re-use culture. Only the lawyers gain if IP is recognized as important to protect.

Pirate it or (my choice) boycott it. Fix your legal system and stop special interests from buying your elected representatives favours/accessto power! FFS.

SOPA has some decent intentions, but the broadbrush language is dangerous. What people do not realise is that it is not only the language of the Bill which is dangerous, but the effect and ability that the language will give silky tongued Counsel for media companies to cite from previous judgements to give it an even broader and more explosive effect.

I admit that I am late to the game here with getting involved, but I am moving my domain here from go***dy because of their support and remarks regarding SOPA. It’s a small step, but I feel one that is a start in the right direction.

SOPA is fundamentally flawed as an idea, much less as a bill before Congress. It seaks to place control on our first amendment rights that is the heart & beginning of our system. You would need to circumvent one law to protect the other. Unproductive & confusing. We have courts set up to deal with this. Leave the internet Free to all who wish to express themselves. Storing 39 Domains here and will be migrating an additional 112 over the next few months. :>)

I’ve wanted to move away from GoDaddy for years, for all the standard reasons. Their terrible commercials. Their attrocious website and scummy attempts to upsell and push more crap on you. Their tendency to screw people over when moving domains or when someone complains about them. Their owner’s attitude and his whole killing an elephant “great white hunter” thing.

I just could never bring myself to go through the hassle of moving all my domains, yet again. But then their whole deal with not only supporting SOPA, but writing part of it and dismissing people’s complaints about it. So, I spent the twelve hours to move all my domains over and am glad I did. In fact, I’ve also renewed some of my more important domains for another 10+ years, for kicks.

I hope you guys never turn into GoDaddy. Stay someone I can afford and appreciate and safely recommend to friends and colleagues without ever regretting my decision.

My husband pointed out your site and hosting and I will be moving all three of my sites and names over to your company from GoDaddy. It’s great to hear that you guys are against SOPA and I will feel much more comfortable having you as my hosting provider!

Thank you for being against SOPA. I went to my godaddy account to see if I had any accounts that I could transfer to namecheap but then realize I didn’t have any domains with them. Thank god.
Besides being with SOPA, they have a terrible UI as well. Plus an overall ugly site.
Keep up the good work namecheap!

Even if GoDaddy made their stance public in November, this is sadly the first I’ve heard of it. Based on recommendations and this statement, I’ve started transferring my domains. I’m happy to support Namecheap as long as they continue to be for Internet freedom and against SOPA.

I don’t care about Dan’s timing issue.. What I care about is GoDaddy’s pro-SOPA stance. GoDaddy has lost my business (5 transfers in progress; dropping 4 others). I’m more convinced this is the right decision given their change of heart apparently because of the backlash… that says they will sway with the prevailing wind.

Thank you NameCheap for being an alternative. Decisions we make can be changed; but simply “going with the flow (of Hollywood in this case)” was NOT “making a decision”…

NameCheap is at least my 4th registrar in nearly 15 years, so I DO vote with my feet/dollars.

My domains have been registered with GoDaddy since around 2003 or so, and I never saw a need to switch out – until SOPA. GoDaddy may well have changed their stance on SOPA since I transferred away, but their wishywashy wording is unconvincing. NameCheap, however, has shown the strength of their conviction against SOPA.

I am in the process of moving all of the domains we manage to Namecheap. In the process, I realized GoDaddy set my auto-renew back on for two domains I explicitly wanted not renewed. I am so tired of their shady business practices. Good riddance and long hail Namecheap. Keep up the good fight fellas!

a small correction — Tim Berners-Lee invented WWW, the World-Wide Web… the Internet was invented in the U.S. about 15 years before that… it was a DARPA project, which is the research agency for the DoD, the military… it was a communications analogue to the superhighway system built in America by Eisenhower… the plan for both roadway and information superhighway systems was to ensure a route across the country in case of nuclear attack, with multiple pathways providing robustness and guaranteed delivery

the world-wide web made the existing Internet more usable… before Tim’s great invention, the only tools available were sucky text tools like gopher and archie… Tim wanted to make it easy to share data on the Internet for non-technical types, like nuclear physicists… he succeeded wildly

ANY legislation passed by Congress is bad news, but nothing more so than the current SOPA and NDAA. America needs to oppose these two bills. Although my ability to log in usually fails miserably and my account is consistently locked, i am proud namecheap is the only one who takes the stance against SOPA.

As a customer of yours (altho a small one) for 6 years, I am no longer able in good conscience to continue our business relationship. Plain and simple: GoDaddy continues to supports SOPA, despite your claims otherwise. You neglected to mention your involvement in drafting this piece of legislation. A legislation, you helped write, that plans to dismantle free speech rights for all Americans.

If that wasn’t already bad enough, GoDaddy is exempted from this very law. You should be ashamed of yourself. However, as an American, who am I to tell you how to run your business??? Duh, of course I can…with my wallet.

In retaliation, I have relocated all of my domains to your competitor, namecheap.com. I will also encourage all my free speech loving pinko comrades in the hosting industry to relocate all their domains from your service to one that embraces the principles this country was founded upon.

The good thing about SOPA is that I dumped GoDaddy and moved my domains to NameCheap. The SOPA/Godaddy story made me look for a new registrar and I found NameCheap.

I like the company much better than Godaddy.
I like the control panel much better than the Godaddy control panel.
I like the WhoisGuard Privacy prices much better than the Godaddy prices.
And I like the FreeDNS option as it enables me to get rid of paid Dynamic DNS providers.

For me, it has been a win/win.So, sometimes, bad news can be good news.

You are right, SPOA sucks, and I was about to transfer 97 domains to you from godaddy, but then I figure you like them have to follow US law. I figure if I am going to transfer, i’d be better transferring to a NON-US registrar – sorry

Got all of my GoDaddy codes for my domains today. I anticipate moving them to NameCheap tomorrow. This legislation will be the end of the Internet, and I will do what I can to help the EFF battle this on behalf of all the sane people out there.

We’ve been pushing domains through you as a reseller for a while now, and due to this we’re confident to keep on using you. We’re based in the UK but happy you’re taking a stand on SOPA! :) Nice work guys!

@Tamar, true, but the domain could also be seized by the registrar with a US nexus (this already happens – a spanish travelagency sending EUROPEANS to cuba for example had its domain stolen – no us activities or clients at all – just a US registrar), without any due process. I know the actual hosting is a bigger target, I current rent a few dedicated servers from SoftLayer (since the ev1 days), but as I’m already pushing the hardware I’m also going to take the opportunity to move them, 1 to snell in the Netherlands, and the rest to Canada. It’s not so much any risk to me, short of a ridiculous mistake by someone no one would consider my sites infringing – it’s more the principle of the matter. I’m just not going to host my sites, and client sites anywhere where there’s a lack of due process, or a risk of censorship of legal sites.

I fully and 100% support your statement against SOPA. The internet is a free and wonderful place that given this type of legislation will become a dark and fearful place, just as is predicted in so many of the futuristic apocalyptic movies we see these days. Go Namecheap and all those that stand against this bill!

(Emailed to GoDaddy CEO and GoDaddy PR earlier today as an Open Letter)

Dear CEO,

You’re under attack and the only reason I am not moving my domain names because of a salesman name “Ron” (and the fact that nobody else can host domains below 8$).

You can look up my customer number (wbienek@gmail.com) and see that I have about 250 domain names. If NameCheap.com gets smart and gets their domain name renewals at or below $8 dollars a year.. You’re toast!

You may not remember this, but AltaVista used to be king of the hill before Google came along.

— — — — — — — —
Godaddy may be the new “AltaVista”
— — — — — — — —

You really seem to be trying to screw the people that hold the keys to your kingdom! IE : Your customers!!

You guys have actively decided to be a part (support SOPA) of people who are against your customers: The RIAA and MPAA

I can appreciate your CEO and top brass wanting to rub elbows with the beautiful “Maxim”/Hollywood crowd, but the geeks who have elevated you will crush you pretty quickly if you go against them – a la Alta Vista!

It seems you have decided to go against their core interests!! Simply releasing a letter saying you’re not for SOPA is not enough since you helped DRAFT] SOPA! You should FIRE the lawyer who helped draft SOPA and run COMMERCIALS against it!

My site : KendallSellsMore was taken off line! This is what you have to look forward to!

We WebMasters are the reason why you are in business!! recourse

Here is the actual letter I used ( Feel free to use this as you’re template ) to have the site re-instated! This is BS that I had my client’s website pulled down over this!! Jealous competitors can have your site pulled down on a whim!

I just heard about this and it pisses me off, I’m with G-Daddy and have already renewed most of my domains with them otherwise I would have moved all of them to NameCheap. I simply can’t afford to pay again to move them… Damn it!!

I have only a few domains at Go Daddy, but I will be in the process of moving them over to NameCheap, because we have to support others ready to stand for freedom. The internet has been the new frontier for everyone who has a voice and for those of us who have entrepreneurial ambitions. I really think SOPA is just an excuse for our government to again restrict creative freedom and commerce, because if it’s intention is only to stop online piracy, there are less draconian measures to do so.

SOPA will be approved as they planned it. They will let you see what they want you to see. You were being controlled and you will be controlled further more.. The Big A** guys planned it well and it will happen, sorry to say. lol.. you thought its your life?

I was planning to switch from Godaddy for a while, their support for SOPA was what got me to start taking my business away from them. I moved three domains today to Namecheap, the others will follow in the coming days. I like the wider choice of SSL certificates offered by Namecheap as well.

It’s a polarizing bill and I’m glad to see people getting involved but I think the issues are worth discussing–because this isn’t just about free speech and pirating music.

If you look back in history, computers have been confiscated by the US government since the beginning. That’s not news–the EFF is old as dirt and fighting those battles every day. But that’s just one aspect of SOPA, in my opinion.

I’d like to see the debate move beyond “We want a free-for-all mosh pit Internet” vs. “Let’s take millions of random websites off the Internet for no good reason.” If you just pick a side, for or against, without some good ammo, you’re losing an opportunity to improve things, IMO. For example, you used the word “subjugating” but I don’t see how you can subjugate someone that’s been knocked off the Internet–care to explain that one?

“While we at Namecheap firmly believe in intellectual rights”

That’s great, because the majority of your clients are producing original content–I hope!

I’ve always been with Namecheap, so I’m really glad I made the right choice to begin with. I run a record label in the UK, but all my sites are registered & hosted in the US, so I don’t want to see any of my sites or my artist’s sites closed down in error for simply sharing music they own the rights to. Here’s a video I came across today that offers some good evidence to use against SOPA. Watch it now before it gets removed.

I would also like to correct an impression voiced by someone here earlier. The Obama Administration had NOTHING to do with this legislation.

SOPA was, in fact, authored and introduced by one Lamar Smith, a Republican congressman from the state of Texas. This legislation is the brainchild of the mighty Majority REPUBLICAN Congress. That would be the same Republican Congress that has an overall approval rating from the American people (last week’s of a rousing 9%!

Please – don’t blame President Obama for taking away your freedom. Congress is a co-equal branch of government, sharing power with the Executive and Judiciary. Republicans are responsible for this “freedom-of -expression- violating”,” restricting-the-flow-of-interstate-and-global-commerce” Legislative monstrosity.

Just another ridiculous act! Pirates would simply move their domain and servers out of US and continue piracy as usual. No big deal. Only the honest internet users and small businessmen will suffer, as usual.

I would like to transfer our 5 domains from GoDaddy because of their ridiculous political policy support. Is there any chance you could extend the coupon till the end of January, or even just a week more? I really like that you supporting the efforts of the EFF too!

SOPA is just another retarded bill created to take away more of our freedoms, in a couple years im expecting a little device to be hooked up to our mouth, if we say the name of a movie, we get charged, if we say the name of a song or a person, they can sue us.

I cannot believe the arrogance of those in the US who think they should rule over/control the internet with every whim of their laws.

I believe in a “free internet” with the ability to voice opinions, have avid discussions, and make a little coin along the way.

Every news organization online should be taking a stand against SOPA, as they are truly infringing on copyright laws when they publish whatever thay deem newsworthy. How can lawmakers even define intellectual property rights in the first place. There are so many authors, musicians and artists out there who wouldn’t be known by anyone and certainly would not be making a dime if it weren’t for the freedom of the internet.

So, we had better say no to SOPA.

Does anyone remember George Orwell’s 1984? Big Brother is looming and wants to strip all free internet users of their right to freely use and find information on the internet.

I am very glad that I chose Namecheap as my domain registrar, as it has taken the correct course of action against SOPA! Where I live similar bills are passed secretly, such as ISPs being allowed to ban users who use P2P sites etc. and I think it utter nonsense to try and censor the internet for any reason – if you don’t like particular content or sites don’t visit them!! Or use software to block them in you own organization or home – don’t go crying to the government who will shut the entire Internet down if they think it will win them votes!!! My organization HBC Group and I are completely against SOPA, and I hope everyone else will follow suit.

I moved my 12 domains from godaddy to NameCheap several months ago and I regret ever giving one dollar to GD. I did it because of their odious elephant-hunting CEO and sleazy advertising, and I’m not surprised me that they support SOPA. I’ve been very happy with NameCheap and I hope to remain a customer for a long time.